Employee Wellness Reimagined — Disney

Hey guys! I’m sitting here on a Sunday afternoon and one thing I was thinking about is starting up a series again about companies that we are a big fan of and that we love and re-imagine the wellness programs, as we look at their culture from afar. We look at the different ways their company started, their mission, their vision, their values and what their employees are like. Then, we come up with templates in our system that would reflect what their wellness programs should act and look like.

Disney has acquired marvel a few years ago, probably more than a few years ago now, it makes me look at Disney even greater than I did when I was younger. But, essentially we all know that Disney started in 1923 and it’s very multi-location and multi-country. They have really captured the narrative of being all things, all great experiences to all ages where all ages can take meaning away from their different properties and different mediums that they put out whether it’s their movies, whether it’s their print media. Disney also owns ESPN, Pixar, ABC Marvel and Lucas Films. They create products for all ages.

They refer to their team members as cast members which is just cool in itself. One thing we look at is, obviously, when you’re rolling out a wellness program you want to honor the different properties and subsidiaries but also tie to the mission and vision values of the greater company, which is Disney. If we look at Disney, the multi-location, what we were thinking about Disney’s wellness program, if they were to redo it or take it to the next level, and let’s say maybe they have a great one is they probably are using something internal like Slack or Microsoft teams.

So, what we would recommend is for them to use Slack or MS Teams and use like a chat bot type program to take pictures of your healthy activity, take pictures of their food, their mindfulness activities, capture the healthy activity just a few seconds, make it fun, make it social with competitions and challenges. Also to make sure on web and mobile that they roll out the experience for the different properties that reflect those different types of branding. So, ESPN Pixar, ABC Marvel, Lucas Films. Part of that landing page, when you roll it on the web and mobile, should be experienced through the chatbot programs.

But, that you also have a very clear progressive program such as bronze, silver, gold, and platinum or it can reflect the different properties of their program. For example, say if they’re Marvel, maybe to have like sidekick heroes as his programs and then each and every single Disney cast member could get points based on those different types of levels. It’d be like a total of five hundred dollars for the year. You could also add the spouse of the program and, you know, if you hit super hero that means you took the HRA, the biometrics, you participated on competitions and challenges. So, anyway, levels, gamification, and points are always important for a wellness program, not to mention being able have it accessible through Slack or MS Teams, on your fingertips on web and mobile.

Other elements of the employee wellness program that we think are important is to make sure that multiple devices can be connected to the system. We know that Disney has a lot of different team members that are accessing their program or not able to get in front of computers all the time, they’re always on the go, they’re always out in the sun or out in the open. So, making sure it’s mobile and it’s friendly, but a lot of people, a lot of employees, not just at Disney, are using Apple Watch and Apple Health and have these things in their pocket or on their wrists. Fitbits are really still big. Some users are still using Garmin or Google Fit. We know that the market is consolidated with these different competitions and challenges fueled by these different devices, but they’re getting smaller right. So there’s not too many devices to track so that’s important to make sure that that’s integrated.

Another big aspect of a wellness program for Disney that would work out a lot is putting the properties, the various different properties and different characters, so if it’s Lucasfilm for example probably putting Luke Skywalker as a silhouette on the background on one of the Wellness cards or for eating well you know maybe putting like Captain America what would Captain America eat or Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck or all the different properties, So integrating that culture in the background so it doesn’t feel like it’s something else is very, very important.

You know, I think that’s really the net net of what we’re thinking of the Disney program. Some other elements that are really important in re-imagined Disney’s wellness program is integrating telemedicine, so you don’t have to send employees to a local doctor, you know telemedicine and integrations are really key, payroll integrations are really key. Health savings accounts is a great financial mechanism in integrating financial wellness into the wellness program; giving points for those different types of elements. Not to mention, in really promoting and giving points and incentives for doing that primary care visit.

We know a big wellness trend is to reward and incentivize employees for going to get that primary care visit, so one can understand where they’re at if they have pre-diabetes, if they have diabetes or metabolic syndrome. Anyway, hopefully I laid out all the different critical components that are key for re-imagining Disney’s wellness program. All right. Thank you so much.